A Mark
by ExoticLily
Summary: Harry is a controversialist, and Ginny is just tired. One-shot. Warning: adultery.


_"Say, do I have to slap you to make you kiss me?"_

'We're not dressing', 1934, directed by Norman Taurog

Harry is a bit controversial, and Ginny is fully aware. Oh, you would know – that old habit of his? Doing exactly what you're not supposed to do.

Ginny looks through the newspaper – she's terrified of newspapers and all the radio programs, and all the owls that never carry good news. We used to fear hearing somebody being pronounced dead as if not hearing could have helped. But people have moved on, you know. Well, almost everyone did. It's just Ginny that stayed the same. She's terrified of newspapers – still, and she still has fears of seeing or hearing several names said out loud. In high society – or in whatever they call so – these names are pretty famous. Romilda Wayne is a promising young model. Susan Bones calls herself a writer. Julie Thomas is…

— …something between a saint and a whore, — Hermione spits, — Albeit, 'whore' is slightly closer.

Ginny puts the cup in the sink, the newspaper in the bin, and her thoughts – in order. How could she let those women in her all-so-peaceful life?.. How could she not?

Ginny smirks, imagining: what would Harry have done if the Forbidden Forest had been called Allowed?

— He'd never have set a foot in there, — Ron laughs and proposes a toast to what he thinks is a good quality.

Harry blushes. How could he blush? Why would he blush? Ginny suddenly finds herself annoyed by this little show of modesty she used to be very fond of. It has started the night before their wedding. Harry wanted to wait till the wedding night, and Ginny has always hated it – to wait.

— After you'd waited to be taken on Hogwarts' Express, then waited to be kissed, to be allowed to join the battle and defend yourself, — she said while tying him to the bed roughly, and feeling horny and unbelievably stupid, — you somehow feel you'd waited long enough.

She had her way with him that night; they went to sleep and she awoke to the realization she's now in the same position she had Harry the night before. She liked it – him, being so mighty and grown-up, and restless, and dangerous, and she obeyed with joy. He seemed to be enjoying the power, too. Afterwards, cutting the ropes opened – too tight to untie – he smiled to her flushed face and blushed. That might have been the silliest thing she has ever seen.

So, what did it? Did someone tell him it's wrong to cheat on your wife? Was it Hermione?

— Oh my, Harry, it's disgusting. Men used to possess such rights several centuries ago, but today we all live in a civilized society, and an adultère just means the lack of self-respect and general respect for your spouse, and common law. You'd never do this to Ginny, would you?

Or was it Ron?

— Cheating, heh? It's my sister we're talking about. I'd break ya neck, buddy.

Or did she do it herself?

— I don't know, Harry. Do I really need to answer this question? All right, yes. I'd never forgive you. Happy?

They enjoy writing to her. They have already sent her half a pound of pure weight of paper and ink and have no intention of stopping. Even though once she killed Wayne's owl with a kitchen knife. She left the bird on the floor, bathing in blood, to let Harry see. He recognized it right away but didn't give a single flitch. She said it was an unfamiliar owl and she got frightened. He nodded and turned away, and – Ginny could have sworn – he blushed.

Of course, she never answers them. Just once she sent Thomas an anti-acne potion from Weasley Wizard Wheezes. She admitted it was a mistake, later, to her friends, as she collapsed on the floor in tears.

— But Harry… But you… Oh my! — Hermione stuttered, lost and confused, and Ginny felt desperate at that sight. They all lived in some feeble hope that Hermione was flawless and all-powerful.

— I… can't imagine this. 'This', I mean… you know!.. How do they do it? Harry is gentle. With me, at least. Can you picture it? Him, walking up to the office desk of Martha Finnegan, Mrs. Martha Finnegan, mind you, smirking down at her, and whispering… "I've got a quick break, honey", and then taking her in the office toilet – cupping her mouth with his hand?!..

Hermione was clearly able to picture it – for she blushed.

— I don't know, Ginevra, — Luna looked through her, blinking dreamily, — He's a hero. He just feels obliged to bring joy to other girls as well… I think it's quite all right.

From that moment on she's been suspicious of them both, as well.

She considers talking to Malfoy, but is afraid of a smug face he would wear, and decides against it. Then she considers sleeping with Malfoy, but the smug face is still there, so the affair is off the table. She calls Teddy Lupin instead.

Teddy Lupin is just five. But Teddy Lupin can change his hair colour in less than a second, and he can do the same to his voice. So he can call a number she wrote down for him, and pretend he's a grown-up woman, and let Rita Skeeter recaputilate every female name Ginny's sure of. Teddy is a good boy, and Teddy does just what she asks of him.

Rita Skeeter, it seems, is on the brink of going mad and crying from joy.

— But cheating is wrong, — Teddy says afterwards, in his normal tone, god bless, because it is already enough complicated as it is.

— Yes.

— When why does Uncle Harry do it?

— Because it is wrong.

Teddy doesn't get it. No one does. But Ginny watches Teddy throw a sweets' wrap right under the sign 'no littering' and feels like screaming.

Ginny doesn't understand Harry, but she seems to be understanding Voldemort. She wants to take Harry's arm and carve it into his flesh – that he belongs to her. She wants to leave a mark that everyone would see. She wants to leave a mark on his forehead – but what a pity! His forehead is already marked. And so are his arms, and heart, and back – he's got such writings all over him. He's touched, and loved, and screamed at, and hated, and kicked, and caressed, and marked by everyone who's passed by.

Luna's right. He stands an idol, and an idol is attracting attention.

Ginny must be the only one who is granted no access.

And this is wrong. And she waits for Harry to understand that and to do what he does best – go for something that is so very wrong.

Harry's amorous adventures make the cover story once again – and it's been a while now. 'The Daily Prophet' prints it in huge letters. Letters are literally huge – they have to move back and forth on the front page to fit in and are still barely readable. They want to get some feedback from Ginny, but Ginny keeps her silence.

Harry comes to lie shamelessly or, perhaps, to apologize and knocks on Ginny's door, but Ginny's not there to answer. Ginny is hiding in France, and then she is hiding in New Zealand, and then she is hiding in all the best and famous places on the globe so that journalists wouldn't find her.

Ginny's absence makes her the most wanted person in Britain. And it is true for Harry just as much as it is true for Rita Skeeter. Ginny laughs and chokes on her Kir Royal, reading 'The Daily Prophet', for she's really learnt this wonderful and perverted human nature.

Harry goes after her and falls in hot pursuit.

She's looked for and asked about more than Voldemort now is – she beats him eventually, five years after he's defeated, she's the first person to ever beat him. Well, the second one, it seems, but she's got control over both, so it doesn't matter.

The only owl that reaches her is the one belonging to Wayne. Ginny must smell different to Wayne's owls, some kind of blood-bound. Ginny burns the letter before reading and breathes in the air of victory. Wayne must be calling her a witch for she gave Harry a gift of freedom and Harry used it to break up with all his lovers right away. Witch — is what Ginny is, truth to be told. The witch inside her even knows that Wayne would sell her whereabouts to Harry as soon as she learns he's out of her reach.

Ginny waits for him to find her, to tear down the door and lay hold of his heart-broken, half-forgotten little wife. For she's left a mark of indifference on him – and no one does that to a hero.

Harry is a tiny-tiny bit controversial, and Ginny is oh-so-aware of that.


End file.
